Kristen Stewart is attached to Lie Down in Darkness, Open Road Media’s planned adaptation of a 1951 William Styron novel, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.

Scott Cooper (Crazy Heart) wrote the script and is attached to direct what is described as a Dickensian and Dostoyevsky-like heavy drama that charts the rise of a Southern family. The family includes Milton Loftis, a drunken patriarch who lusts after one of his two daughters, a frigid mother and the aforementioned daughters -- one beautiful, the other a cripple.

The Twilight star's involvement is only an attachment at this point because the project is not financed and has no start date. Sources say financing likely will hinge on the casting of the male lead. Oscar winner Colin Firth was attached to the part at one point, but that is no longer the case, according to sources.

Stewart is coming off of Snow White & the Huntsman, which was a modest hit for Universal this summer. While the studio has hired David Koepp to write a sequel, it's unclear if that movie would happen before or after Lie Down, should it get financing. Stewart next will be seen in November's The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part II, the final installment of the mega-grossing vampire franchise. She also has On the Road, based on the Jack Kerouac novel, which premiered at Cannes in May but does not have a set release date in the U.S.

UPDATE: A source close to the project cautions that the development is at an early stage. "While its exciting to see all the interest the project is generating, the film is still in the pre-production process and no offers to cast have been made as of yet," says the source.